Mary Jeanne Kneen missed her life in Germany, where she had spent much of the 1990s and started her family. Living then on Chicago's North Shore, she looked for a means to stay linked with the Europe she loved while exercising her passion for design and decor.

Kneen found the future by entering into a partnership with a Belgian company to sell the very kind of antique fireplaces she had installed in her home.

"My house was my showroom," she recalls. "The kids were young. It was something I could do from home. It grew completely organically from there."

"It" grew in just about 10 years from her fireplace company, Au Coin du Feu, into Kneen and Co., a purveyor of upmarket, often handcrafted items for the home. Some of the brands are hers exclusively in Chicago. Her offerings range from sterling by James Robinson, the noted New York antiquarians and silversmiths; to Austrian crystal by Lobmeyr; to hand-embroidered linens by Sharon Blond; to porcelain from Nymphenburg, one of the world's top manufacturers.

Kneen and Co. is in a small showroom, open by appointment, in the Lincoln Park apartment building where Kneen now lives with her husband, John Kneen, and her two daughters, Madeline and Olivia Reese. Her business is split between working directly with customers and working with interior designers and architects. She's working with more brides and has set up a registry where everything can be customized.

"The one common thread is not economics or gender or education," she says. "More or less, these people have an appreciation for fine design and the arts."

Q: What is one thing your mother or father never told you?

A: That you really can do whatever you want to do. Set your sights high and never give up.

Q: If I'd only known then …

A: It would have been great to have had a better sense of accounting and hard-core business before diving into this. I wish when I started the business I had all the knowledge I have now.

Q: Who's your favorite author?

A: I would have to say probably Shakespeare.

Q: What's the one secret to success?

A: I think hard work is part of it. I think never giving up. There are times you want to throw yourself under the bus. It's just tomorrow is another day. If it's really bad, I just think about Scarlett O'Hara standing there at the end of the movie saying tomorrow's another day. There's always hope; never give up. To go back to the secret of success, it's never giving up and following your dreams and your heart and doing things that you like to do. I think some people are very safe and very cautious. I've always been the opposite, more of a risk taker; I just always go for it and try it. And if it doesn't work, recalibrate.

Q: What's your biggest mistake?

A: I try not to look at things in terms of mistakes. It is what it is, and you learn from it. I think everything sort of happens for a reason, and you have to look at your life and what's happened and move on from there.

Q: What side gets cheated more often: personal or professional?

A: Well, it depends on if we're talking right now or two years ago. Right now, I've been spending a lot of time on the business. I think the key to being successful is finding that balance in life. I know everyone talks about that, but I really think it's true. I'm trying my hardest to learn how to turn off work and just be with my family and say no.

Q: What is your greatest possession?

A: My immediate gut answer is my children, but I don't own my children. They are a great joy in my life. What I would actually say is my health. I love the things I have. They make me very happy, but there's always more to find and love, and you can't let yourself get too caught up in that.

Q: What's your wish for your daughters?

A: That they're happy. Of course, I want them to be well-educated, successful and find love, but it's all about happiness, right? I think there are some people who will never be happy and other people who are joyful and grateful for the gifts that they've been given in life. I hope they find that true sense of happiness and balance.